The imposing estate at the end of Oak Lane in Carteret County, North Carolina, is the domain of Lady Rena Laurel Chadwick, a mysterious and eccentric recluse whose wealth, political clout, and nebulous past have made her a favorite subject of local gossip and speculative intrigue. Lady Rena, who dresses in Victorian costumes and speaks with a British accent, lives alone except for six cats; her redoubtable housekeeper, Marcella; and Dr. Corbeau , a graduate of Duke Medical School who enjoys playing a stoic butler. Not a single resident in the coastal rural community of Williston has seen Lady Rena leave her house in the last thirty years, but Lady Rena has one confidantHarry Wade,a neighbor who lives down the lane with his wife and faithfully visits Lady Rena. But when Marcellas son suddenly dies under suspicious circumstances and then Marcella disappears without a trace, Harry, his wife Rosemary, and a sheriffs deputy become embroiled not only in an intriguing murder case, but also find themselves facing specters from the past. In this lively tongue-in-cheek murder mystery, someoneor somethingis harboring a secret in Williston, and it is up to the motley crew of detectives to find out what it is.

Outrage! This is the true story of the rape and murder of a child, told in a style which is both tender and savage, holy and evil, magnetic and repulsive. The study illumines the murder, the response of the law, and the wild life of the perpetrator. Is anyone safe?

For Cal, some choices are devastatingly simple... He can work in an abattoir that nauseates him or join the dole queue; he can brood on his past or plan a future with Marcella. Springing out of the fear and violence of Ulster, Cal is a haunting love story in a land were tenderness and innocence can only flicker briefly in the dark.

V. E. Schwab's New York Times bestseller Vicious is a masterful tale of ambition, jealousy, desire, and superpowers. Victor and Eli started out as college roommates—brilliant, arrogant, lonely boys who recognized the same sharpness and ambition in each other. In their senior year, a shared research interest in adrenaline, near-death experiences, and seemingly supernatural events reveals an intriguing possibility: that under the right conditions, someone could develop extraordinary abilities. But when their thesis moves from the academic to the experimental, things go horribly wrong. Ten years later, Victor breaks out of prison, determined to catch up to his old friend (now foe), aided by a young girl whose reserved nature obscures a stunning ability. Meanwhile, Eli is on a mission to eradicate every other super-powered person that he can find—aside from his sidekick, an enigmatic woman with an unbreakable will. Armed with terrible power on both sides, driven by the memory of betrayal and loss, the archnemeses have set a course for revenge—but who will be left alive at the end? In Vicious, V. E. Schwab brings to life a gritty comic-book-style world in vivid prose: a world where gaining superpowers doesn't automatically lead to heroism, and a time when allegiances are called into question. "A dynamic and original twist on what it means to be a hero and a villain. A killer from page one...highly recommended!" —Jonathan Maberry, New York Times bestselling author of Marvel Universe vs The Avengers and Patient Zero One of Publishers Weekly's Best Fantasy Books of 2013 At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

When fourteen-year-old Marcella Coyle leaves Ireland to join her brother, Fr. Jimmy, in Alabama, she could not have foreseen the turmoil that lay ahead. Far from home and the boy she almost loves, plunged into the tense cauldron of the Deep South as the twentieth century begins, she struggles to understand her outspoken brother and his perilous way of seeing everyone as a friend. Her own plans are stymied by war and a rising bigotry that makes Jimmy a target as the KKK returns to the streets. Meanwhile Marcella's friendship with the enigmatic Bessie Stubbs, and her impulse to rescue some meaning from her exile, has consequences that shock the city. And still on the edge of memory, she senses something bigger ...

Looks at the serial murders in Britain from the 'gay murders' of Michael Copeland in 1960 to the Ipswich murders of 2006. This work follows events from a social and victim-related perspective. It also covers the following killers' victims: The Ipswich murders of 2006, Peter Sutcliffe (The Yorkshire Ripper), Dennis Nilsen, and Harold Shipman.

This text explores the ways in which crime fiction manipulates cultural constructions such as race and gender to inscribe dominant cultural discourses. It notes that even those writers who set out to revise conventions repeatedly produce some of the genre's most conservative elements.

The importance of Chicago in American culture has made the city's place in the American imagination a crucial topic for literary scholars and cultural historians. While databases of bibliographical information on Chicago-centered fiction are available, they are of little use to scholars researching works written before the 1980s. In The Chicago of Fiction: A Resource Guide, James A. Kaser provides detailed synopses for more than 1,200 works of fiction significantly set in Chicago and published between 1852 and 1980. The synopses include plot summaries, names of major characters, and an indication of physical settings. An appendix provides bibliographical information for works dating from 1981 well into the 21st century, while a biographical section provides basic information about the authors, some of whom are obscure and would be difficult to find in other sources. Written to assist researchers in locating works of fiction for analysis, the plot summaries highlight ways in which the works touch on major aspects of social history and cultural studies (i.e., class, ethnicity, gender, immigrant experience, and race). The book is also a useful reader advisory tool for librarians and readers who want to identify materials for leisure reading, particularly since genre, juvenile, and young adult fiction, as well as literary fiction, are included.

James Ellroy's prose, in many ways as complex as any in the Western literary canon, strung together sensational stories of crime and catastrophe. The significance of his writing to Western culture has yet to be fully explored. Author Peter Wolfe offers us the first book-length study of Ellroy in English.